Mallett: Bok attack must replicate Lions

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Cape Town - Former Springbok coach Nick Mallett says the
Springboks should adopt the Lions style of attack if they are to improve their
backline play.

Mallett was commenting in the SuperSport studio after the
Lions’ stunning 37-10 annihilation of the Sharks in Johannesburg at the
weekend.

“Every Lions player knows what his responsibility is. They
have an absolutely brilliant, accurate attack. The reason the Lions are so
effective is that every player who hits the gainline, does so at pace with a
support runner on his shoulder. So the backs are always trying to offload
through the tackle and the forwards are looking to go through with momentum and
win quick ruck ball. And when that happens, the defence doesn’t have time to
reset and then Faf de Klerk is so quick to that ball, that they are creating
opportunity after opportunity,” said Mallett.

“The Sharks have a good defensive system, but they were
ripped apart by the variety in this Lions attack. The Lions had quite a number
of players away with the Springboks, but the Sharks had the majority of their
squad in training for those three weeks. And the Sharks trained with the
express desire to win this game and save their season. So it was a highly motivated
Sharks team that went to play at Ellis Park, but the Lions just played
irresistible rugby, it was just everything I wanted to see from a South African
rugby team.”

Mallett’s message to current Springbok coach Allister Coetzee was
clear as he highlighted a problem area in the Springbok midfield.

"A lot of people say Test rugby is a step up and players
need to understand that their mistakes and errors cost more and therefore there
is a tendency to play more conservatively. I’d like to take Lionel Mapoe, who
had a very quiet Test series against Ireland, as an example. I can’t remember a
pass that he got from Damian de Allende in a Bok jersey because De Allende was
asked to take the ball up. It wasn’t Mapoe’s fault that he couldn’t get his
hands on the ball. If we can just get our Springbok attack to replicate the
Lions', I’d be so much more confident about our chances against New Zealand and
Australia.”